


the one where there's a lot of snow

by deiectus



Series: city!AU [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Emotions, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Snow, city!AU, sleepover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-06
Updated: 2015-02-06
Packaged: 2018-03-10 17:19:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3298160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deiectus/pseuds/deiectus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Through the space between the door and the frame, Sasori saw Kabuto's eyes narrow at Deidara. "If you are going to be here, you are going to to be... subdued," he said, voice low.</p><p> <br/>[Sasori and Deidara's heat breaks down during a snow storm, and they bribe Kabuto into letting them come over.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	the one where there's a lot of snow

**Author's Note:**

> this oneshot brought to you by my inability to work on anything consistently. also brought to you from snow shoveling hell. my apologies for any errors with the french.

 

 

 

 

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 3:45 PM  
 _The heat in my building is broken._

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 4:23 PM  
 _I will become a human icicle._  

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 5:36 PM  
 _Je suis un glaçon. Deidara ne sera pas arrêter de se plaindre._

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 5:53 PM  
 _Ce est l'enfer. Le cercle final. Dans la gueule du diable._

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 6 PM  
 _I know you can check your phone at work._

to: Sasori; 6:10 PM  
 _I don't check it every second_

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 6:11 PM  
 _Il Vit! C'est un miracle._

to: Sasori; 6:13 PM  
 _I can't fix your heater_  

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 6:13 PM  
 _I know your heat works._

to: Sasori; 6:15 PM  
 _no_

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 6:17 PM  
 _Itachi will give us a ride._

to: Sasori; 6:18 PM  
 _NO - I'm not even home yet_

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 6:20 PM  
 _Obviously you're done working. Itachi could let us in._

to: Sasori; 6:21 PM  
 _NO_

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 6:22 PM  
 _I will pay your heating bill._

to: Sasori; 6:25 PM  
 _I'll believe it when I see it_  

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 6:27 PM  
[image_047.jpg]

to: Sasori; 6:50 PM  
 _my utilities are more than $20 a month. and you misspelled my name._

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 6:55 PM  
 _$50, and we'll be there in an hour._

to: Sasori; 6:57 PM  
 _I don't have a choice in this, do I? I have plans tonight, sasori_

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 6:58 PM  
 _Take a night off from sex. $65._

to: Sasori; 7:03 PM  
 _deidara just texted me that he hasn't seen me sit down in a month. you're unbelievable._  

to: Yakushi Kabuto; 7:05 PM  
 _Have you?_  

to: Sasori; 7:06 PM  
 _fuck you both_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 8 PM, Kabuto was waiting for them outside of his apartment door, leaning against the wall, arms crossed. He glared flatly at Deidara.

"Hey man!" Deidara yelled cheerfully as they walked up to him, "You, uh, you smell great, Kabuto!"

"I showered," Kabuto responded.

Kabuto turned to Sasori and held out a hand. Sasori dropped the check into Kabuto's palm, and gave him a tight smile. The hallways weren't heated in the Uchiha building, and even though there was no wind in here, his cheeks still burned. He was impatient to get inside Kabuto's apartment, but until that door was opened, he knew he'd have to be polite. He'd told Deidara to behave and not to speak until spoken to, but clearly that hadn't gotten through to him.

Kabuto turned the check over, and Sasori wondered if he was going to hold it up to the ceiling light to check the authenticity. It was a show; just a bit of sadism on Kabuto's part. Sasori could handle that, but Deidara was impatient.

"So..." Deidara broke the silence. "Are your plans with Kakashi?”

Kabuto ignored him. With another flat look at Sasori that quickly softened into something more neutral, Kabuto folded and pocketed the check, then turned around and unlocked the door. Sasori inclined his head in a show of mock gratitude and Kabuto smirked at him after he'd stepped inside, holding the door open. "Get in."

Deidara basically jumped, but Kabuto was quicker, and the door was nearly slammed on the other man’s fingers. Through the space between the door and the frame, Sasori saw Kabuto's eyes narrow at Deidara. "If you are going to be here, you are going to to be... subdued," he said, voice low.

Deidara gawked at him. After a moment, he swallowed, and said, cheerful tone forced, "You know, I really think you and Kakashi make a great couple! I've always told Sasori that the days after you guys bang, you're much more agreeable!"

Sasori closed his eyes and sighed through his nose. He resisted the urge to cover his eyes with a hand.

Kabuto stared coolly at Deidara. "I had a very stressful day, and you're getting on my nerves," he finally announced, but stepped back to reopen the door. Sasori didn’t ask to confirm, but had a strong suspicion that Kabuto hadn’t slammed his door on Deidara’s fingers because he would have inevitably been the one to tend to the injury.

"See? Agreeable!" Deidara grinned, and then pushed past him. "I will be quiet, I promise." He rushed around Kabuto's living room until he'd located a heating vent on the floor, and sprawled out over it, pressing his cheek to the grate. He'd left his shoes in the hallway, at least.

"I'll hang up his coat," Sasori said to Kabuto after he'd hung up his and was unwrapping his scarf from around his neck.

Kabuto shrugged a shoulder, and reached to take off Sasori's hat and dust the snow onto the thick plastic mat on his floor. There was another with raised edges for shoes, and Sasori stepped into it before leaning down to unlace his boots. Kabuto placed Deidara's next to Sasori, and neatly tucked the laces inside.

"I borrowed an air mattress from the Uchihas, though it's only a full." Kabuto's tone was much easier now, and Sasori began to believe there was a fair chance he'd get his check handed back to him. He hadn't said anything to Kabuto about staying the night. Sasori straightened and looked at Kabuto, who then continued, "but they didn't have many extra blankets."

Sasori nodded. He supposed this was the time to say thank you or something similarly grateful, but he didn't have a chance. Kabuto started walking to the kitchen and began talking again. "I don't have a lot of food—" Sasori followed behind him. "—and I'm too tired to cook beyond what I’ve planned for Kakashi and me." He took his kettle off of his stove and stepped to the sink. Kabuto flashed an apologetic frown over his shoulder at Sasori. "I think my leftovers have meat in them, too."

"That's fine," Sasori finally spoke. Kabuto began to fill the kettle up with water. "We ate at our meeting."

Kabuto turned up the heat on one of his stove's burners and set the kettle on top. "I might have some..." his gaze flicked to the living room, and he lowered his voice before saying, "popcorn."

"Deidara's hearing isn't _that_ good," Sasori said, with a touch of a scoff to his voice.

"I just don't want him to eat it all," Kabuto said, his tone confessional.

Sasori turned to open one of Kabuto's cabinets. "He was right," he murmured as he sifted through tea bags and jars to find what he liked, "you are much more agreeable."

Kabuto sighed and rolled his eyes. "I _didn't_ have sex last night."

After he'd found a mug, Sasori dropped his tea bag into it. "My condolences," he said dryly. Kabuto frowned at him.

"Were you going to tonight?" Sasori tried, sitting on a stool just outside of a kitchen and leaning his elbows on the bar counter. He heard Deidara moving around in the living room next to them, and looked over at him with a jerk of his head in the direction of the coat rack. Deidara blinked at him, but seemed to understand after a second, and shuffled over to take off his dripping layers.

Kabuto shook his head, his back to Sasori now as he filled a pan with water, then rice, then a small pad of butter and a dash of salt. "I don't think we were planning on it. We're both tired." After he'd set it on the stove and covered it, he turned back to Sasori and leaned against the counter. "You have Kakashi to thank for the cleared roads."

"Oh?" Sasori raised an eyebrow. He didn't add that he _never_ saw himself thanking Hatake for anything. Not even for Kabuto's post-sex agreeableness.

"So much snow fell that the street cleaners are swamped, and Minato always organizes a volunteer group for doing what of the suburbs and parks that they can." The kettle started whistling, and Kabuto took Sasori's mug to pour the hot water into it.

So that was why Sasori's driveway and sidewalks would be eerily clear some winter days, even though Deidara refused to buy a shovel. He took the mug when Kabuto held it out to him, cupping his hands around it for warmth. “I see you are on a first name basis with the city’s mayor,” Sasori said instead of commenting on Kakashi’s virtue (the furthest he’d go would be appreciating the man’s small contribution for overall efficacy and quality of life for the city’s residents in the winter, but that’d never be expressed).

Kabuto’s cheeks tinted pink, but only slightly. “He’s practically Kakashi’s stepfather, and he asked me to call him by his first name.” The water in Kabuto's pan began to boil, and he covered it before turning down the heat on its burner and starting a timer.

Deidara joined them then, wrapping a blanket around Sasori's shoulders and looking at Kabuto expectantly while he fished for something in his pocket. Kabuto stared back. Deidara finally brought out a slightly crumpled packet of hot chocolate mix and waggled it at Kabuto, who wordlessly filled another mug with hot water before handing it to Deidara.

"Thanks, man!" Deidara chirped, and even waited patiently until he was given a spoon. "You're the best!"

Kabuto pressed his lips together, but Sasori could see from his eyes that he was pleased, and was just keeping himself from smiling at Deidara. "There's popcorn in the cabinet next to the microwave," Kabuto said after a moment of consideration. Deidara's face lit up, and Sasori grabbed the back of his sweatshirt so he couldn't launch himself at Kabuto, but Deidara broke his grip. Luckily for Kabuto, someone knocked at the door at that moment, and he dodged Deidara's arms on his way out of the kitchen.

"The absolute best!" Deidara called after him. He looked at Sasori after he'd gotten a packet of popcorn out of the cabinet. "You're the best, actually," Deidara told him as he set the packet in the microwave and keyed in instructions, "because only you could bribe Kabuto into letting us sleep over."

"I didn't know he would let us sleep here," Sasori murmured. Deidara didn't respond, because one of his favorite things in the world was eavesdropping, and that knock was undoubtedly Kakashi.

"Hi," they both heard Kakashi say, his voice rough. The door shut, there was a pause, and then they saw Kabuto walk past the kitchen to drop a pile of blankets next to the box with the air mattress before walking back to Kakashi.

"You look terrible," Kabuto said.

"Long shift. Some kids thought they'd climb trees."

"Idiots," Kabuto sighed. "I saw plenty of those at work today."

"I caught most of them," Kakashi said, his voice growing louder and clearer.

"Then you saved me some headaches, at least."

There was another pause. Deidara turned to Sasori and stuck his tongue out, guessing that the silence meant they were kissing. Sasori hid his laughter behind a hand.

"Is someone here?" They heard Kakashi ask, and then he walked to the kitchen doorway, Kabuto behind him. His hair was damp and drooping around his cheeks, the skin of his face red and chapped from the cold and wind. He was only wearing an undershirt and boxers, the rest of his clothes undoubtedly soaked through. Kakashi shivered and raised a hand at Deidara and Sasori. "Hey."

"Sleepover, dude!" Deidara yelled, high-fiving the hand that Kakashi had raised in greeting.

"Our heat is broken," Sasori explained.

"Oh, okay," Kakashi nodded. "Yeah, the central heating here is pretty good." He rubbed at his face, clearly exhausted and fighting for the energy to be polite.

"Do you want to take a shower?" Kabuto asked Kakashi, looking at him and ignoring Sasori and Deidara. "I took mine a while ago, so there should be plenty of hot water. I was going to make some chicken and vegetables for us, and rice is on the stove."

"That sounds amazing; you're amazing," Kakashi groaned, and swiftly dipped his head to press his mouth against Kabuto's, _hard._ Kabuto responded with a surprised, "mmf," his hands coming up, fingers catching in Kakashi's shirt.

Deidara stared ecstatically at Sasori, who rolled his eyes and looked away, preparing to clear his throat if this went on for an embarrassingly long period of time. He didn't need to, however, because after a moment Kakashi pulled back and, after fixing Kabuto's glasses for him, walked off to the bathroom.

Kabuto blinked at the air as if dazed. He caught Deidara staring at him and rubbed at his mouth, self-conscious and blushing. Sasori silently sipped his tea, smirking. Kabuto moved to his fridge and took out chopped peppers, onions, and sliced mushrooms before setting out a cutting board and raw chicken on top of it (considerately far from Sasori, but which meant next to Deidara). The sound of the showeer's water running started up. The microwave dinged. Deidara took his cooked popcorn out of the microwave, and glanced at Kabuto. "I bet you're totally thinking about him naked in there," he said, leering.

"I bet you'd like to sleep inside tonight," Kabuto snapped, but his flush deepened. Even years into it as they were, Sasori was still surprised at the variety of Kabuto's reactions to anyone commenting on his relationship with Kakashi.

"I would," Deidara responded, tossing popcorn into his mouth, "and you are a benevolent god."

"Not a god," Kabuto argued, but his tone was mild. "Get out a pan, Deidara, and put it on the stove." He chopped the chicken breast into chunks, trimming off some of the fat before tossing the pieces in salt and pepper and some other spices that Sasori couldn't see the labels of.

"I get to help?" Deidara asked incredulously, rooting around in the kitchen drawers before pulling out a wide pan and setting it on a free burner.

"If you're going to make snide comments, I'm going to put you to work," Kabuto responded. He took out a jar of olive oil and moved back to the stove, poured some into the pan as he lit the burner, then dropped vegetables into the pan. "At small, menial tasks that I am confident you can comprehend."

"I comprehend a lot," Deidara said, moving next to Sasori and leaning on the bar as he chomped popcorn. "I comprehend that you were totally swooning just now."

Kabuto stirred the vegetables with a large wooden spoon, sprinkling them with salt and pepper with his other hand. He had begun to smile at the word "swooning" and scowled to cover up the expression. "I don't understand why you need to comment on things that are none of your business."

" _You're_ the one who drunkenly confessed to me on the regular," Deidara countered, pointing at Kabuto.

Kabuto looked at him disappointedly. "I never asked for a babysitter," he sighed, "and that was a _year_ ago."

"You needed one," Sasori ventured into the conversation. "And it was less than a year ago."

Kabuto's shoulders stiffened. His timer for the rice began to ding and he moved the pan onto the last free burner of his stove before turning off the heat for the burner it had been on before. He fluffed the rice with a fork, checking if any had stuck to the bottom of the pan, and then covered it again. "I didn't."

"At the time, I didn't think your mother would have wanted you to—" As soon as he started speaking, Sasori regretted his words, and cut himself off. Kabuto's stormy expression fell and was replaced with the one Sasori dreaded seeing: blank, shut down, and with a tightness in his eyes. Deidara looked between them, eyes wide.

The shower water stopped running.

Kabuto straightened his back, took in a long, deep breath, then exhaled. "No, she wouldn't have," he said. He turned to Deidara and held out the spoon. "Would you stir the vegetables, please, Deidara? I'll be right back." Sasori stared into his tea, too ashamed to look up at Kabuto.

"Yeah," Deidara said dumbly as he took the spoon. Kabuto walked out of the kitchen without another word, and they both heard the bathroom door open and Kakashi's voice murmur something a minute later.

"Dude," Deidara said to Sasori, his eyes still wide.

"Go stir the vegetables," Sasori snapped at him, not looking up from his tea.

"Okay," Deidara walked back around the counter into the kitchen and began to stir the vegetables in the pan. "That was low, man."

"It was the truth," Sasori muttered defensively, and then his shoulders drooped and he sighed, “but I know."

The sound of the bathroom door opening again made Sasori jump. "Leave that on your face for at least ten minutes," he and Deidara heard Kabuto say, "it'll take the redness down. This jar for moisturizer."

Kakashi said something that Sasori couldn't hear perfectly, but it sounded like "are you okay?". The bathroom door closed again.

Deidara gave Sasori a pointed look.

Sasori glared back at him, annoyed with himself that he'd said such a thing and annoyed that Kabuto had asked _Deidara_ of all people—asked him _politely—_ to watch his cooking instead of Sasori. "I _know_ ," he hissed, and slunk off of his stool to head in the direction of the bathroom, letting the blanket fall to the floor.

He paused when he was out of Deidara's sight, hovering awkwardly in the short hallway and waiting for Kabuto to come out of the bathroom. Waiting and dreading, to be precise. Sasori swallowed, tried to figure out what he would say, and then the door opened.

Kakashi stepped out first, a towel wrapped around his waist, with Kabuto behind him. Kakashi's hair was held back with a long band of elastic, and some sort of green cream covered his face. He was holding a container of lotion in one hand and an unmarked jar in the other. Kakashi glanced at Sasori, then walked to Kabuto's bedroom and shut the door.

Kabuto met Sasori's eyes, and from what Sasori could tell, he seemed fine, if closed off.

"Kabuto—" Sasori started.

"I did stop drinking so much," Kabuto cut him off, and though his tone was firm, it wasn't harsh. "You're right that my mom wouldn't have wanted that. It was unhealthy. I know you were looking out for me by having Deidara there when I did."

Sasori's shame deepened. It was never his place to act in Yakushi Nonou's stead, he knew that; so did Kabuto, and Kabuto wasn't even scolding him for that. His shame came more from the fact that he had brought up something in Kabuto's past that Kabuto was uncomfortable about, and suddenly thrown his mother into the mix without a thought. Mostly, he was ashamed that Kabuto was handling this so maturely. He had grown up in Sasori's absence and even in the years he'd been here in the city, when Sasori wasn't looking. And Kabuto was still younger than him—so much younger. Sasori nearly resented him for it. Sasori often _did_ , in fact, resent Kabuto for the mix of strong feelings he inspired in him.

Kabuto had been watching Sasori, and waiting for him to say something, but his patience was not infinite. "I'd like to finish cooking dinner, so—"

Sasori stepped forward and wrapped his arms tightly around Kabuto's chest. "I'm sorry," he said very quietly, so that only Kabuto would hear it (though Deidara was undoubtedly straining his ears). "That was cruel of me to say earlier and I'm sorry."

"Um." Kabuto's arms hovered around Sasori's shoulders. He had gone rigid when Sasori hugged him, and was slowly relaxing. "What are you doing."

"I'm hugging you," Sasori said stiffly, “and… apologizing.”

Kabuto was quiet for a second, and then suddenly he laughed in surprise, and his hands settled on Sasori's back. "Normally," he said quietly, "people apologize and then hug."

"Je ne suis pas un expert en ces choses," Sasori murmured sullenly, "I am not good at these things." He let go of Kabuto and stepped back, looking up at him apprehensively.

"What do people say now?" Kabuto asked, holding his chin and looking up at the ceiling in mock concentration. His movements reminded Sasori of Kakashi, and he inwardly cursed the other man. "Do they say 'I forgive you?'"

Sasori frowned sourly. "You are making this worse."

"I think I'm fully allowed to," Kabuto grinned. "Come on, let's go back to the kitchen."

Sasori had a mind to grab Kabuto’s sleeve when he started walking away and make him say if he’d truly forgiven Sasori or not. He didn’t, because Kabuto had a longer stride, his own arms were punishingly short, and that wouldn’t improve the situation. He followed Kabuto back into the kitchen, and gave a weak shrug in response to Deidara’s questioning look.  
  
“Thank you, Deidara.” Kabuto took the spoon back from Deidara and resumed cooking, adding in the chicken after a moment.   
  
Deidara walked back to the stool-side of the counter and stared at Sasori, clearly not satisfied with the shrug-as-recap reply. Sasori ignored him and finished his tea after he’d wrapped the blanket around himself.  
  
The silence was awkward, but it was thankfully short-lived. Kakashi emerged from Kabuto’s bedroom after a few minutes, his face pink but nowhere near the shade of red it’d been when he arrived. Sasori noticed that Kakashi’s sweatpants matched the sweatshirt Kabuto was wearing.   
  
When Kakashi reached Kabuto, he placed his hands on his shoulders and leaned around to kiss his cheek. “That smells great. Did you put cayenne on the chicken?” Kabuto smiled and said nothing, and Kakashi pressed another kiss, this time to Kabuto’s neck, before stepping back and opening the fridge.   
  
Normally, Sasori would have loudly announced something like, “we’ll give you your privacy,” but now he just quietly slipped off the stool and moved to Kabuto’s couch. Deidara automatically followed and sat crosslegged beside him.   
  
“I gotta admit they’re pretty cute,” Deidara said quietly, looking back at the kitchen, and then at Sasori to offer him a handful of popcorn. “However much you dislike Kakashi.”  
  
“Can we not talk about me,” Sasori said weakly, burrowing further into the blanket. “Or Hatake Kakashi. Or the two of us in the same sentence.”  
  
“Aw, I’m sorry,” Deidara said, his voice nearly cooing. He kissed the top of Sasori’s head and stretched out an arm behind him. Sasori’s reached out from his blanket cocoon and took some popcorn.   
  
“If you drop that on the floor,” he told Deidara after he’d eaten a mouthful, “Kabuto will vacuum and guilt trip you when you least expect it.”  
  
“I could guilt trip him back,” Deidara said breezily. He looked at Kabuto’s TV, and then his face took on a longing expression. “I should’ve brought my games,” he sighed mournfully. “Kakashi and I coulda battled.”  
  
Sasori risked a glance back to the two in kitchen, who had not immediately started necking after they’d left. Kakashi was drinking a glass of water and leaning against a counter while Kabuto was serving food onto plates. He settled back into his blankets until only his head was visible.   
  
“Can I—” Deidara yelled, “ _may_ I watch TV, oh benevolent host?”  
  
“Sure,” Kabuto replied. He and Kakashi came out of the kitchen to eat at the table between the couch and the counter. Kabuto pushed papers aside to make room for their dishes. They sat close together as they ate.  
  
Deidara turned on the TV and flicked through the channels to some action movie that had come out last year. He snuggled close to Sasori, who rested his head on Deidara’s shoulder and closed his eyes.  
  
“What possessed you to let them sleep over?” Kakashi murmured quietly to Kabuto.   
  
Kabuto shrugged. “I’m hardly going to let them sleep at home and freeze if my heat works.” He took a drink from Kakashi’s glass of water and turned to him. “Did your building lose power?”  
  
Kakashi nodded, chewing.   
  
“Sasori also bribed you,” Deidara called from the couch. Kabuto glared. Deidara lifted his head to grin at the two of them.  
  
“He bribed you?” Kakashi asked. “You accepted a bribe? You never—” he started to whine. Kabuto kicked Kakashi’s shin under the table and he closed his mouth, frowning pathetically at him.   
  
“I accept your bribes all the time,” Kabuto said quickly. “Maybe you don’t notice.”  
  
“I’ll have to pay closer attention,” Kakashi laughed. “But I doubt it.” He finished his food and leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms behind his head. “So what did Sasori bribe you with?” he asked with a lazy grin.   
  
“I am paying his next utility bill,” Sasori said sleepily from somewhere inside his blanket cocoon, “and whatever else the rest of the money goes to.”  
  
Kakashi blinked in surprise, then barked out a loud, sharp laugh. “You only let them over because they paid you?” He asked Kabuto incredulously. “You’re _renting_ them an air mattress and a spot on the floor?”  
  
“You are all terrible,” Kabuto sighed as he stood up, “and I wish I didn’t know you.” He gathered his and Kakashi’s plates and began to walk back to the kitchen.   
  
“Hey, Kabuto, wait, I’ll wash the dishes,” Kakashi followed after him.  
  
A drowsy and loud “ _Non!_ ” came from Sasori’s pile of blankets, and the other three froze and turned to look at the couch. After a moment, Sasori threw his blanket onto Deidara’s face and stood, swiveling on a heel to look at Kabuto. “I will do it,” he announced, “I will wash the dishes.”  
  
Deidara was laughing uproariously from underneath the blanket, and Kakashi and Kabuto were staring at Sasori with different levels of shocked amusement.   
  
Kakashi finally broke the silence. “In Mordor?” He laughed, “I don’t know if they have sinks there.”  
  
Sasori ignored both Kakashi and Deidara as he walked over to Kabuto and took the dishes out of his hands. “I will wash everything,” he said to Kabuto, who was still staring at him, “go sit down.”  
  
Kabuto looked at Kakashi for guidance, who shrugged, just as lost. “Do you…” Kabuto asked Sasori, who was already putting away the leftovers, “do you know where everything goes?” 

“Yes,” Sasori answered, now fully awake, “I will take care of it. Go sit.”  
  
Kabuto watched Sasori in confused concern until Kakashi steered him away to the armchair. Its seat cushion was rather large and had been an impulse buy. Kabuto could comfortably curl up in this armchair and occasionally fell asleep when he tried to study in it. Kakashi sat down and pulled Kabuto to sit with him, forcibly turning his head away from the kitchen and toward the living room, himself, and Deidara (who had stopped laughing and removed the blanket from his head).  
  
“What’s on TV?” Kakashi asked Deidara. He straightened in his seat and then moved Kabuto to his lap regardless of protests, leaning his head around him to look at Deidara. Kabuto looked back with a frown, and was about to move off of Kakashi’s lap when Kakashi began to knead at his shoulders. His eyes abruptly slid closed.  
  
“Some superhero thing,” Deidara replied with a shrug. “I wasn’t really watching it.”  
  
“This would have been a good day for games,” Kakashi said, seemingly oblivious to the way Kabuto was starting to melt under his back massage. “I hear we’re supposed to get more snow on Wednesday. Are you free?”  
  
Deidara grinned. “I can make it happen. I could bring my stuff. Kabuto’s the one with good heating, though.”  
  
Kakashi hooked his chin over Kabuto’s shoulder and spoke softly into his ear. “Would that be a problem, babe?”  
  
“Nothing is a problem,” Kabuto mumbled, his back curved forward to give Kakashi the best reach. His head hung down, his chin nearly touching his chest. Kakashi looked back at Deidara and returned his grin, though his smile was far more wolfish.   
  
Kakashi spread his legs and pushed Kabuto forward gently to get some space between them. Now he could easily get at the middle of Kabuto’s back, and as he continued his massage, he alternated between looking at the TV screen and his hands.   
  
Deidara and Kakashi carried on an idle conversation about the weather and each other’s day while Sasori washed the dishes. It was warm and comfortable in Kabuto’s small apartment, and though Kakashi hadn’t been expecting to spend his evening with Sasori and Deidara, this was kind of nice. It was probably, Kakashi grudgingly thought, what Gai meant about friendship. Even if this was nowhere near the levels Gai seemed to experience.   
  
Before long, Sasori turned down the lights in the kitchen and rejoined the other three, once again disappearing into the mound of blankets at Deidara’s side. Sasori’s return to the living room coincided with the end of Kabuto’s massage, the sore muscles in Kakashi’s biceps calling it quits. Kakashi wrapped his arms around Kabuto’s waist and gently tugged him back, and Kabuto moved easily, turning slightly to the side and bringing his legs up to rest on the arm of the recliner. His grip relaxed once Kabuto seemed to be settled.   
  
Kabuto opened his eyes to check on the state of his apartment and guests—and found, to his surprise, a tame scene. Sasori was somewhere in the blankets to Deidara’s left, and Deidara was energentically playing a game on some handheld console, headphones in his ears. He jerked every few minutes or so for some reason (Kabuto couldn't see, but Sasori was poking Deidara whenever he fidgeted too violently). The TV was still playing a movie, but no one was watching. Kakashi had leaned his forehead against Kabuto’s neck and shoulder as soon as Kabuto had moved back against him. His arms were heavy around Kabuto’s waist, and his breathing was even.

“Sasori?” Kabuto said quietly, looking at the pile of blankets on the couch.  
  
A groggy voice responded after a moment. “Oui?”   
  
“I just wanted to see if you were awake,” Kabuto said. He turned to look over his shoulder and accidentally bumped Kakashi’s head with his cheek.   
  
Sasori pawed at his blankets from inside his cocoon, and soon his head was exposed. “Je suis éveillé,” he said, looking at Kabuto. “I think Hatake is the only one actually asleep.”  
  
“Yes.” Kabuto gently pulled at Kakashi’s wrists, but his arms wouldn’t move. Kabuto tugged, but Kakashi’s grip on his waist only tightened. Kabuto frowned. “He might still be awake, too,” he sighed.   
  
“This is when you ask yourself,” Sasori said sleepily, “whether the stress is worth it.” Deidara snickered. Kabuto looked at Sasori, his expression confused and mildly disgusted, and Sasori regretted his attempt at humor. He was never very good at being funny when he was half-asleep.  
  
But Kabuto didn’t call him out on it, only faintly smiled and and continued to try and disentangle himself. Kakashi laughed quietly against his shoulder, and finally let go after another minute.

Kabuto stood and walked over to the side of the living room where the air mattress, blankets, and pillows were set next to the heating vent. He took the mattress out from its box and began to unroll it. When Sasori realized what Kabuto was doing, he pushed himself off from the couch, dragging Deidara with him and still clutching his blanket in a hand.   
  
“We can prepare the air mattress,” Sasori said. He released Deidara’s wrist, but it was only to tug his headphones out of his ears. Deidara winced, then nodded at Kabuto. “Yeah man, let us take care of it.”  
  
For a moment, Kabuto watched Sasori suspiciously, clearly thinking about something. Then he let go of the deflated mattress and stood. “Okay,” Kabuto said with a shrug, “but do not wake me up if you can’t inflate it.”  
  
“I’ll wake Kakashi up,” Deidara said with a look at Kakashi, who was only now getting out of the armchair. Kakashi shook his head and left the living room without a word. “Okay,” Deidara continued, crouching, “I will set up this air mattress, and, Kakashi failing our sacred bro pact and refusing to help me, I will sleep on the floor, since Sasori will undoubtedly hog the couch.”  
  
“He doesn’t have a—” Kabuto began, but dropped it. “Well… I’ll probably be up for another half hour, so if you have trouble, just knock.”  
  
Deidara had unfolded the air mattress completely now, and was plugging the pump’s power cord into the wall. He pulled a face at the word “knock” and shook his head. “No way, man. I don’t want to go anywhere near your sexytimes.”  
  
Sasori snorted behind a hand.   
  
Kabuto rolled his eyes. “Alright, don’t knock.” He looked at Sasori. “Do you need anything?”   
  
“Non,” Sasori shook his head, “I am fine, thank you.”

“Okay.” Kabuto nodded, as if he’d just debriefed them on an assignment. “I’m going to sleep now. I will see you two in the morning.” Sasori nodded back at him. The pump whined as it inflated the mattress.   
  
“Good _ni-ight_ ,” Deidara sang as Kabuto walked off, shaking his head at the two of them.

After Kabuto was gone, Sasori kneeled next to Deidara and rummaged through the pile of blankets until he found sheets. “I thought there were no extra blankets,” he said to Deidara.  
  
Deidara turned to look at him. “Kakashi said he ran into Itachi coming over to drop them off when he got here.”  
  
“Hm.” Sasori sorted the sheets, laying the fitted sheet in his lap until the mattress had finished inflating. “Help me with this.”

It hadn’t been a particularly long day for Sasori, aside from his slow commute home after work had shut down early. Still, he was quite tired, and he still felt sick about what he had said to Kabuto earlier—even though there seemed to be no problem on Kabuto’s end.

After they finished passably making up the air mattress, Deidara flopped (gently) onto it and tugged Sasori down with him. He piled blankets on top of them and snuggled in close to Sasori, every bit of him covered except for the top half of his face.   
  
“You’ve gotta stop acting weird, man,” Deidara told Sasori, his voice muffled by the blankets. “Kabuto knows you’re upset.”  
  
Sasori reached outside of the mattress for a final blanket. “I am not acting weird.”  
  
Deidara sighed and rolled onto his back. “I guess you always act weird.”  
  
Sasori frowned, moving so that he was on his side with his back to Deidara. Deidara, however, only shuffled back over and spooned around him. Sasori contemplating pushing him out of the mattress. It would only be hastening the inevitable.   
  
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Sasori said.  
  
Deidara was quiet, and eventually threw an arm over Sasori and pulled him close so he could press a kiss to his cheek. “Okay, dude. But I’m here if you want to.”  
  
Sasori relaxed against Deidara’s chest. “I know.”

Deidara hugged him again, then scooted a few inches to the side to continue his video game. Sasori debated getting up to find the book he had brought in his coat pocket, but had less motivation to leave the warmth of the blankets than to amuse himself. He wondered if his apartment would ever be this warm.   
  
“Do you think they’re banging?” Deidara whispered.   
  
“Go to sleep, Deidara.”

  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
Kabuto and Kakashi were in fact _not_ banging. Kakashi was too sore (his lower back especially), and already half-asleep by the time they had gotten to bed for anything to really happen. They kissed sleepily for awhile but after that they laid in companionable silence, legs tangled, Kakashi’s arm slung loosely across Kabuto’s waist and Kabuto’s hand on Kakashi's head, lazily scratching at his scalp.   
  
“Are you going to keep the money,” Kakashi murmured. His eyes were closed, but Kabuto’s were open, watching the lights from the occasional car as it passed by.   
  
“I haven’t decided.” Kabuto pressed his lips together. “Maybe I’ll have him make us breakfast and slip the check back into his coat pocket.”  
  
Kakashi yawned. “Oh yeah, everything’s still shut down.”  
  
“Do you have to shovel more tomorrow?”  
  
Kakashi’s hair tickled the skin of Kabuto’s neck as he shook his head. “I don’t think so.”  
  
Kabuto dropped his hand back against the pillows and yawned. His eyelids were beginning to droop more heavily with each blink.   
  
He hadn’t expected Kakashi to speak again. “It’s kind of nice,” Kakashi murmured. “To have them here.”

“Hm,” Kabuto hummed. “It’s okay.”  
  
“I like…” Kakashi’s voice was quieter, and his words were beginning to slur together. Kabuto was surprised he’d even stayed awake this long. “I like just you best, though.”

Kabuto smiled, and leaned his head toward Kakashi’s. “I like just you best, too.”

 


End file.
